Sabel
by Xanzi
Summary: Short story. Er...I really don't know what to say about it. Ok, fine.Sabel Ivyne is haunted by the same dream of a beast chasing her through a dreamscape. Cheesy summary...I know.


Right. Well, language arts (English) homework: "write a short story". And this was supposedly "good", so why not? Enjoy!

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The ragged panting breath and the pounding of footsteps not attempted to be silenced were the only sounds that could be heard. The sound echoed off the cold, unnaturally smooth steel surrounding her, amplifying as it raced down the tunnel. Sabel Ivyne wanted desperately to wake up; she needed to in order to escape the eternal darkness threatening to smother her consciousness and the advancing wall of black fire reaching out to consume her soul. Sabel never turned around, but the image of her predator materialized behind her closed eyelids when she blinked. The vision of a silent dragon with gleaming black scales filled her head now. Tattered black leathery wings protruded from its back. Sharpened silver spines trailed down its back and were attached the tips of its wings. Pointed teeth made of the same material filled its gaping jaws, from which extended spirals of icy black flame. Set on either side of the stunted spikes growing down its face, were two glowing eyes the color of dying embers, shaped like two protruding orbs with hollow slashes for pupils.

Sabel was running…running…through an endless tunnel maze that seemed to have no end, but also, fortunately, no dead ends. Every twist lead into another uniform tunnel, equally endless. If Sabel crawled into a thin pipe, too thin for the dragon, she could sit inside it forever, and forever the dragon would wait for her to emerge, sending cold sparks ricocheting off steel the entire time. The moment Sabel emerged from the pipe, the chase would resume. There was no way to throw off the dragon, but there was one way to escape it.

A fork of green lightning pierced through the roof of the tunnel. Green bolts clung to the steel and pulsed gently, forming a warp tube. Instinctively, Sabel hurtled into the tube. Behind her, the lightning sucked itself inward, catapulting Sabel through darkness.

Sabel Ivyne woke up on her bed, clutching one of the many scattered squish pillows. Still breathing heavily from her nightmare, Sabel concentrated on calming herself down. Her radio alarm was now blasting a song by some metal band that she didn't recognize. Outside, the blaring of angry car horns floated through thick early morning smog. Sabel, still clutching the pillow, sat on the edge of her bed for a while, watching partially obscured rays of sun ride down on particles of pollution and thinking about her dream.

After a few minutes, Sabel hauled herself out of bed and looked at her reflection in the glass mirror hanging on the wall. Her face, surrounded by green tinted carved vines gazed back at her. Intense gold-flecked green eyes studied her reflection from behind green-rimmed glasses. Soft auburn hair cascaded past her shoulders. Long, pale fingers brushed long bangs from her angled face. Sabel sighed. She would have to put her thoughts of the dragon aside for now, and get ready for the day.

After hastily pulling on a pair of jeans and a blue and white t-shirt, Sabel tripped out of her bedroom, and was greeted by her two Abyssinian cats. Both female, one was smaller and slightly darker than the other, but, like most cats of their breed, both were slender, had short hair, and were extremely intelligent, perceptive, and affectionate.

The felines were now purring and twining their bodies around Sabel's legs. Sabel smiled and stroked their heads. In a place like New York, you needed feline friends to preserve your sanity. As she rummaged through the cupboard, she made a mental list of tasks that she needed to accomplish sometime in the near future. Math homework was at the top of the list. She would do that during her first period health class. Finding a can of cat food, she emptied the contents into the stainless steel bowl. The two cats scampered over to eat. Also, there was that science test today. She could bring her textbook to the cafeteria and study then.

Despite her lack of attention in class, and towards school in general, Sabel managed to get up to eighth grade with mostly very good grades. She spent much of her class time doodling in the margins of her homework or plotting criminal conspiracies, though she never planned to carry any of them out.

Catching her toast as it popped out of the toaster, Sabel kissed both her cats goodbye, grabbed her backpack, and ran down the street to the bus stop. The bus appeared around the corner just as she skidded to a stop at the designated intersection.

Once on the bus, Sabel went to the second seat on the left, where there was a girl sitting in the seat already. The girl's sharp-featured face peered up through a curtain of dirty blonde hair, and then, recognizing Sabel, she moved her backpack to allow Sabel to sit next to her. The two girls greeted each other. Kakie Wilson had been Sabel's friend since…no one could remember how far back. Now Kakie studied Sabel with icy blue eyes: icy, but not at all unfriendly.

"You seem troubled," said Kakie. "What's up?" Like Sabel's Abyssinians, Kakie was extremely perceptive of others' moods. Kakie could tell that something was bothering her friend.

"Oh, nothing important", said Sabel. "Really", she added, seeing Kakie's disbelieving expression.

"Sure, sure," said Kakie, rolling her eyes. "You know that you can tell me. Is it the science test? I'm sure that you'll do fine on it."

"No, it's not that. Really, it's nothing important," said Sabel.

Kakie persisted, "Hmm…it wouldn't be that 20th century progress check next week, would it?" At Kakie's words, a vivid image of the dragon in her dreams projected itself in Sabel's mind. Seeing her hesitation, Kakie couldn't help but smiled to herself. There was yet to be a trouble that Sabel could hide from her.

"Don't worry about that, Sabel. You can come over today, and we'll work on it together. It'll be done in no time," assured Kakie.

Sabel nodded. "Thanks, Kakie, but I think I got this one. Actually, I was planning to do it Tuesday night."

"Next Tuesday?" Kakie inquired. "But the assignment's due next Wednesday. Tsk, tsk. Procrastination."

Both girls started laughing at that. Kakie always knew what to say to make Sabel laugh. Kakie, apparently satisfied, allowed the conversation to flow through various other topics. After all, this was eighth grade. Procrastination was only to be expected. Anyway, Sabel had a way of always being able to complete an assignment, no matter how small an amount of time she had set aside for it. By the time the bus pulled into the school's drop-off circle, all thoughts of the dragon had been banished from Sabel's mind.

The entire school day passed without a thought about the dragon. When Sabel arrived at her apartment, she was still in a good mood- the effect of Kakie's bubbly personality aura. The cats mewled at the door when they heard Sabel fumbling the key in the lock. She pushed the door open, careful not to hit the cats, and went into the kitchen to greet her mother, who was at the moment baking brownies.

Sabel took one look at the brownie batter, and then said, "Let me guess, the batter seemed thin, so you dumped in another cup or two of flour?" Her mother nodded, too busy to reply verbally. Sabel groaned. This happened four out of five times when she left her mother to bake. When the brownies came out of the oven, they would resemble chocolate colored bricks with pockets of dry flour that would spurt out when you bit them. Disgusting.

Heading upstairs to "do her homework", Sabel tossed her backpack onto her bed and booted up her computer. She momentarily considered finishing the 20th century project then but decided against it. However, the thought of her project brought back her shoved aside dream of the dragon. Sabel soon found herself contemplating the meaning of her dream.

Presently, Sabel's mother called her down to dinner. She automatically switched her mind to autopilot in preparation for the harassment of "how was your day" type questions.

The meal had put Sabel's mind more at ease, and by the time she crawled into her bed, Sabel laughed at herself for looking so deeply into her dream. It was only a dream, she told herself. Almost certainly brought on by the book she had been reading last night. However, no matter what she told herself, a part of her knew that the dragon would fly again that night.

Sabel was right. That night, the black dragon did indeed reappear. This time however, it flew closer; close enough for Sabel to feel its wings throw air into tantrums, and to hear the soft cracks as water particles froze on contact with the black flames, then shattered on the tunnel floor. The dragon chased her relentlessly until the morning light penetrated her subconscious, and jolted her back into reality.

Sabel woke up to a frosted Saturday morning. With the absence of the customary rush hour traffic sounds, birds could be heard twittering on stiff, frozen branches from trees crammed in between parking meters. The dream had come again. Sabel spent the entire morning thinking for a meaning to the dragon.

Around midday, Sabel reprimanded herself. She was spending time searching for an answer that simply didn't exist. Her dream was completely meaningless, and her current behavior was leading her toward insanity. Angrily, Sabel shoved the dragon from her thoughts. She dumped herself into her computer chair, spinning it until her mind was just a blur of disconnected thoughts.

Calming herself, Sabel stopped the chair and turned on her computer. After logging in, Sabel opened Windows Media Player. Her playlist of 4-5 star rated songs started playing. However, after a few minutes it became apparent that not even music could distract her attention from the dragon. Her thoughts kept straying to the dragon, then to her still undone project, then back to the dragon; switching back and forth, and looping. Now Sabel felt not only fear towards the dragon, but she hated it. She hated it for disrupting her nights, and now for destroying her concentration. Sabel resolved to do whatever she could to terminate the dragon.

Suddenly, the thought of the project flashed through her mind again. The project. She had to finish it. All afternoon Sabel worked on completing the project, and by dinnertime, she had finished. Giving it a pat, she slipped it into her backpack.

That night, Sabel was confident that the dragon would not chase her again. In her dreams, she found herself standing in the tunnel again. She could feel the dragon approaching, but for the first time, Sabel was not afraid of it. She stood her ground and glared at the monster that she had created. The only emotion she felt was hate. The dragon flew closer, but as it approached, it caught on fire; hot fire that burned through its scales, into its empty heart and reduced it to a pile of shimmering ashes. Slowly, the tunnel faded, until all that was left was a peaceful darkness.

A/N: If you don't understand the story, either you weren't paying attention, or you are extremely dense. Whatever the case may be, read it over. I'm sure that you can figure it out. :-D


End file.
